Marion Lennox - Hijacked Honeymoon

1998

Dear Reader,

Far north Queensland and Australias Great Barrier Reef combine to make one of the best, most romantic, most exotic and just plain fabulous holiday destinations in the world.

Just ask met My husband, my children and I love it. After every visit I return to my desk sandy, sunburned and gloriously happy Im ready to write more romances, but theres always a trace of I wish I could have stayed longer.

This year, as we were waiting in Cairns airport for our flight south and back to work, a honeymoon couple arrived on the inward flight. They were obviously very much in love, they were weighed down with beach gear-and he was just gorgeous! So all the way south I sat and scowled. What if I hijacked her honeymoon

And the lovely thing about being a romance author is-that I just did! And I hope you enjoy it.

SAPPHIRE COVE, Australia, was definitely the loveliest place in the world for a honeymoon.

Pity about the bride.

Dr Ryan Henry eased his foot from the accelerator and gazed across the headland. What he saw was magic.

The sea below was the sapphire blue that gave the town its name. A yacht with white sail and crimson spinnaker stood out against the distant islands. The wind was warm and laced with salt and sunshine, and tropical growth surged between coconut palms all along the roadside.

Magic, indeed.

His mother hadnt thought so.

Sapphire Cove is the end of the earth, Ryans mother had told him when shed taken him to the States seventeen years ago. Ryan had been fifteen years old and his parents marriage had collapsed. Dont ever let your father talk you into coming back.

His father had never tried, and Australia was no longer part of Ryans life. But the idea of Far North Queensland for a honeymoon appealed to Felicity, and the fact that Ryan hadnt seen his father for seventeen years intrigued his intended bride.

Ryan, I didnt know you still had Australian citizenship. Hey, I have a conference in Hawaii in November. What if we meet in Australia straight afterwards? We can marry and honeymoon there, and maybe you can visit your father before I arrive.

We should arrive there together, Ryan insisted. If I make my flight the day after your conference ends

Felicity arched her beautifully pencilled eyebrows and decided to humour him. Well, why not? Ryan Henry was certainly worth humouring. Tall, dark and drop-dead handsome, as well as being one of the countrys most promising young surgeons, Ryan was a hunk in any womans eyes.

Scared of meeting your father on your own, then? she teased. OK, Ryan, Ill come with you.

But she hadnt. Ryan might have known she wouldnt. Emotional family reunions werent Felicitys scene. Ryan had landed in Cairns this morning to be met by a message from Felicity. She was still in Hawaii.

Theres a post-conference meeting its imperative I attend. Ryan, these people are so important careet-wise. Ill join you when I can. Go on to Sapphire Cove and Ill meet you there.

Yeah, great

Damn you, Felicity, Ryan said savagely. The beauty of his home town faded in the face of his anger, and he shoved his foot on the pedal with more force than it deserved.

Mistake.

A bicycle flew out from a gravel side road straight across his path. Ryan hit the brakes hard, but he couldnt stop in time.

The bicycle ended up right beneath his car.

The world stopped.

There are some moments so awful that to replay them in memory or to try and describe them is unbearable. This was one of those moments.

For two seconds Ryan sat, stunned and frozen, while the sound of metal against metal faded to nothing. It seemed a lifetime that he sat there. In fact, it was two whole seconds.

Then he was out of the car and launching himself around the front of the bonnet to find the unimaginable horror that lay beneath.

There was a bike-or what had been a bike. A tangled heap of metal was buckled right under his car. For one awful moment Ryan thought the rider must be there too-beneath the twisted bike.

He wasnt. No. She wasnt. Dear God

The rider-a girl-was crumpled and motionless on the verge of the road. Shed been thrown clear.

She was dead?

As white as a ghost himself, somehow Ryan moved to see, and as he did the girl stirred and moaned.

The moan was a tiny sound. Her stirring was a tiny movement. But it was enough to shove Ryan back into medical mode-to lift him out of the nightmare a little, back to a mental framework where hed been trained to cope. A medical emergency.

Dont move, he snapped urgently, and knelt down beside her on the gravel. His strong hands moved swiftly to press the girl back on the verge to stop her from rising. If her spine was fractured Or if she had head injuries

He removed her bike helmet gently, half-afraid of what he might find To his relief, the short, dark curls were unbloodied. Then he put all the authority he could muster into his voice in a vain attempt to override his shock. Dont try to move.

Silence. The girl did as he ordered and lay absolutely still. Or maybe that initial movement had been his imagination.

At least she was breathing. Ryan ran his hands over her body to check her, his eyes taking her in. The girls eyes were closed. She was young but not a child-maybe twenty or so. Slight. Five feet four or five. Black curly hair, close-cropped and shining. Finely boned with a wide, generous mouth and a neat little nose. In other circumstances she might be described as lovely. Very lovely. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt that said NO FEAR.

The slogan wasnt appropriate. Ryan was so fearful he could hardly breathe himself.

There wasnt a vestige of colour on the girls face. She had a faint smattering of freckles across her nose and they only made her lack of colour look worse.

He had to see what damage there was. But to turn her

Do you think I might move just a bit? a voice said cautiously. Theres gravel sticking into my cheek.

Ryan practically yelped.

Then he grinned, relief washing over him like a tidal wave. No brain damage here, then.

There were other sorts of damage.

Wait a bit

I think my spines intact, if thats what youre worried about. Still with her eyes closed and still motionless, the girls voice seemed somehow disembodied. I can feel everything.

The girls voice wasnt as sure now as it had first sounded. It held a distinct tremble. And Ryan found himself putting medical imperatives aside and moving to touch her face. To comfort her.

Hey. Its OK. He stroked the soft, black curls as one might have reassured a frightened child. Youre OK. Im a doctor. Youll be fine.

She opened her eyes at that, and stared straight up at him.

And he knew her.

Ryan Henry would have known those eyes anywhere. Theyd taunted him as a child. Haunted him for years.

Abbey Rhodes had been eleven years old when hed left Sapphire Cove. She was four years younger than he and his mother had hated her. White Trash his mother had termed Abbey, and when shed seen Abbey, trailing home alongside Ryan, shed let loose with both barrels.

Ryan, that childs mothers not married. Worse, she never has been married. Shes poor as a church mouse and scrubs floors for a living. If that woman thinks youre going to waste time talking to her child Well, thats why were leaving, Ryan. This whole place has no class at all.

Sapphire Cove didnt have class, Ryan acknowledged, and it was one of the things he remembered about Australia with affection. The Abbeys of the town, the poor, the immigrants, the local Koori kids whose parents thought houses were a waste of time-and Celia Henrys son-were all treated exactly the same by the locals. And, despite what Celia thought, Abbey had definitely regarded herself as the equal of Ryan. Or better.